The Girl Time Forgot
by Drunken Turtles
Summary: Poor Kaz, such a misunderstood creature searching for his sister, waiting for the moment he could save her. A man hated for who he is and what he needs to do to stay alive. After being treated like a monster for so long it makes a person become cold and slightly psychotic. That is, until he met Adira, a strong-hearted and independent Blaziken; she was the one to change his life..
1. Prologue

**New story, just for fun.**

 **I love all of you guys! Enjoy this story.**

 **Oh, and this was beta-read by IcyNirvana. Yes, he's still around... I think.**

 _I met my lovely master/friend quite a long time ago; well, long for you guys, short for me. Between now and then, A LOT has happened- too much actually. If I were to tell you how and what happened, it would seem incoherent, but eventually it comes together. I'll let the author tell you how this entire thing got to be..._

Adira walked down the pearly white hallway of the hotel towards her room where Kaz rested in. "You know, we've only had a minor bump, but Tunut wa-" The door from her room was blasted off the hinges as a flood of black tentacles shot out the doorway, followed by a screaming man running out of the room. "Aey, spoke too soon-"

 _TOO FAR! Back it up by a lot! Get your shit together, man..._

...Adira socked Kaz in the nose then slammed her fists on the metal interrogation table, "For the second time! What are you and where did you come from!?"...

 _No, back a bit. Go to when she walked in; that was a memorable moment for me._

Adira walked into the interrogation room where Kaz had been waiting for a good hour. As she walked in the room, Kaz looked at her and was about to speak but Adira grabbed him by the hair and smashed his head into the metal table. After she did that she stabbed Kaz's right hand with a knife; the blade going through his hand and into the table. "What are you and where did you come from!?"

Kaz smiled and watched the blood drip from his broken nose, "Shit, you're a rough one..." He glanced over to the knife that bound his hand to the table and gave out a low laugh that was between a grunt and a growl.

Adira wasn't amused at all, her fists clenched as Kaz merely smiled and looked down at the dented table. She looked at the one-way glass that covered half the wall and growled, telling everyone behind it that she was about to lose it. Kaz looked up at Adira and gave her a smug grin, pushing her patience. Adira socked Kaz in the nose then slammed her fists on the metal interrogation table, "For the second time! What are you and where did you come from!?"

Kaz lightly laughed and threw his head back, "Let me think back a few hours ago..." He thought of how he got 'caught' by Clearlan.

* * *

He sat in a decrepit hotel room that was mostly covered by the pulsating black things he called his mouths while eating his meal. Kaz was minding his own business and all of a sudden these schmucks kicked in the door, and one of them yelled: "Get on your knees!"

Kaz responded with, "I'm not your mother last night!" and they took exception to that. All seven heavily armored agents fired upon Kaz, ripping him to shreds as he stumbled backwards onto a wall, painting a trail of blood as he slowly slid down. They ceased fire and looked at Kaz's destroyed body that leaned against the wall. The agents all looked at each other, turned around and walked away, telling their mobile H.Q that the target was down. But they should've known how that song and dance goes. And for the next few minutes all the H.Q could hear over the radio was screaming, gun fire, and the sound of body parts hitting the ground.

Adira saw all her men get systematically killed as the blue dots that represented her men disappear off the monitor screen, but she wasn't terrified that whatever was inside was coming out- no, she was mad that whatever was inside had killed seven entire squads of her own men. She slammed open the H.Q's doors; which was a black van, and walked outside to the front doors of the hotel, waiting in front of the spotlight that came from the police cars behind her.

Kaz walked out covered in bullet holes and blood while his left hand was still regenerating; making it vaguely resembled a black, sharp and contorted hand. He smiled widely upon walking out of the hotel as all the agents and police officers that stood behind the cars aimed their guns at the monstrous looking man that the spotlights focused on. "You have some nerve to kill MY men then just walk out as if you were expecting a prize!"

Kaz turned his attention from the bright lights to the angered Blaziken that stood in front of him. He found it to be somewhat of a surprise that she would stand there, totally exposed with no weapons or armor, just her feathers and firsts. "Have I actually found someone worth my time? And this Pokémon speaks English!" Kaz walked towards her and took a good look at her, looking into her unwavering angered eyes and intricate flame patterns near her hands and feet. "No fear or hesitation of me, no matter how dangerous it could be, you just stare into my eyes." He analyzed Adira's every reaction, adoring how she hated his smug attitude.

Instead of talking to Kaz or asking for help she took thing into her own hands and punched Kaz down to the ground with such force that any other human would've died. "I'm not in the mood for your shit, I'll talk to you when I bring you in!" Adira handcuffed Kaz and dragged him into an armored truck that would bring him back to one of Clearlan's various station.

* * *

"Ah yes, I am a thing that defies all of your beliefs, I stand against all of your 'gods'." Kaz laughed as black tentacles came out from his hand and consumed the knife that was stuck in it.

Adira grabbed the metal chair next to her and was about flip shit, but just before she did a man came in the room and firmly grabbed her by the arm. "Your time is up, it's my turn." This extremely muscular and tall man sternly looked at Adira, grabbing her by the arm with some force. She yanked her arm out of his grip and groggily walked over to the door.

She looked at me then back at the man, '"You're gonna fucking regret this!" and slammed the door with such force that the one-way glass shook.

"Aww, but I like her better~" Kaz politely smiled and pulled his seat closer to the table. "You better be as entertaining as her." He closely watched the man take a seat on the table while getting an aggressive look from the man.

Adira kicked open the door of the observation room that looked into the other room Kaz was in, and she angrily demanded: "Where the hell is Reeds!?"

"In his office," an agent nonchalantly responded, drinking coffee.

The Blaziken growled and stomped out the room and down the halls to Reeds' office. In a true Adira fashion she slammed the door open and screamed, "REEDS!" even though he was right in front of her.

"Shut the fuck up! It's three in the morning and I have a pounding headache!" Reeds angrily scolded Adira, his head only getting worse with every second she stood in the room.

"You are SO stupid! Do you really think it's a good idea to put that dipshit in the same room with that thing! The only reason it came with us is because of me, so where in your fucking head did you think it's a good idea to take me away from it!" Adira walked towards Reeds while shouting at him. "I'm the only change we have to learn more about his species, to protect ourselves from them!"

SHUT! THE FUCK! UP!" Reeds screamed louder than Adira could ever imagine as he threw a wine bottle against the wall; the bottle shattering on contact. "I am your higher up! I make the decision around here!" He sighed and massaged his forehead, "You're my best agent, I don't want to lose you; once we know what the dangers are we can get to the information part... anyways, they're in the hot box; anything goes wrong and they all turn to ash."

Adira took deep breaths and sat down. "I'm gonna sit here and wait for the red lights to come on..." she calmly spoke.

Reeds shook his head, "it won't-"

"Wait." A second later red lights started flashing and sirens rang in every room of the building.

"Fuck."

Adira crossed her arms and smiled, putting her feet on Reeds desk. "I said so..."

They heard screaming down the hallways as heavily armored personnel ran passed the window of their door. Another guard came through the door and shouted, "Get out of here-" right before a black tentacle grabbed him by the leg and threw him down the hallway. Moments later a black flood spilled into the room; veins spreading in through the door and up the walls, sealing, and floor. A black viscous blob expanded into the room, knocking over chairs, plants, and even the door that blocked its path. Reeds screamed like a little girl when a 'face' came out. Three blue eyes and a disfigured mouth full of sharp teeth extended into what could be called a neck as two 'arms' grew from the main mass. "Where is she?!" It asked with a deep raspy growl.

Adira stood up from her chair and walked right up to its face, "You want me? I'm right here! Go ahead, make a mess of my base and kill my men!" She grabbed the monstrosity that was Kaz's true form by the neck, bringing herself face to face with it.

I didn't just kill them, I consumed them! You see, I need to keep myself working and alive." Adira felt Kaz's cold breath on her face as he chuckled. "Also, that guy tasted stale like bullshit, but it's fitting for a man that plays tough then squeals like a bitch!" Kaz looked into Adira's unfazed glare and ran his 'hand' down her cheek, "…Are you playin' tough?"

Adira gave Kaz a straightforward answer by bitch slapping him so hard that half his face tore off. "Don't ever doubt me! Turn back into a normal person and clean the mess you've made! NOW!"

Kaz recoiled at first, then smiled, "As you wish..." The main black mass kneeled and turned back into Kaz's human form while the rest of the tentacles and veins that covered the walls retreated back. While the tentacles came back all the things that they'd knocked over were placed neatly back to their original spots. "Finally, someone I can respect." Kaz looked up at Adira as the black mess of tentacles, veins, and tendrils entered his body through a black gash on his back that soon became part of his clothes. "I offer my services, but I follow your order to a certain extent. Our relationship is one of master to beast; the master respect the beast's power, and the beast respects the master's authority," he set the guidelines for his service.

Frankly, Adira was taken back by such an offer; it's not an everyday occurrence to get such an offer. "Stand. No creature like you should kneel..." Kaz stood up and anxiously waited for her answer. "I... I accept, but why me?"

"I've lived for millions of years on this planet, but everyone I've met either ran away, or tried to kill me in fear. You are the first to stand face-to-face with me and treat me as if I was an equal. After freely running around for that long just consuming and destroying things I got bored... I wanted a master, to remember the good days of the past, but I found no one I could respect." Kaz smiled with delight while explaining his motives.

"C-can I, come out...?" Reeds interrupted, whimpering under his desk where he hid the entire time.

"Yea..." Adira sighed and watched him crawl out from under his desk.

Reeds cleared his throat and straightened his suit, gaining back his composure. "So is this the man that took out seven squads, the monster that kills for life?" Reeds looked at the casually dressed nappy-haired man that wore a black T-shirt, faded blue jeans, and light blue hoodie. He felt underwhelmed; Kaz wasn't tall, muscular, ragged, or mean looking... he looked too normal. "What will you do with that... thing?"

Adira looked at Kaz for a second and thought of what to do with the beast. "At any rate, I'll teach him how to act and feel human, which includes not killing people if they bore him. But for now I want a pizza; I'll be up 'till six writing a report of what happened today…" she groaned and walked out the doorway, stepping over the door. "And no killing!" she shouted from the hallway.

"I'm on it! Be back in a couple of minutes... and Reeds, nice choice of wine." Kaz walked out of Reeds office and jumped through a window, falling a good four stories.

Reeds sat back in his leather chair, kicked his feet up onto his desk, and gave a strained groan. He picked up a radio and spoke on all channels, "Code alpha: all personnel are to report back to their posts. Allow C-073 full access to the base; he is property of Adira. I repeat, do not interfere with C-073; he is property of the Blaziken bitch."…

 _Ah yes, I remember that day! Adira got really pissed when I told her I stole the pizza from the delivery guy, but I got the pizza without killing or hurting people, so I did exactly as she asked. Now that the important things are out of the way, I'll let the author write the rest of the story without my interruptions... well mostly. Continue, please..._

It's been seven years since Kaz and Adira met on that fateful night. Since then, a lot has changed between them, but not as much has changed for them.

Kaz's phone rang, playing _'It's Showtime'_ from Undertale. "Yello!" He placed it on speaker, answering with a stuffed mouth.

"Is the target down- and what are you eating?" Adira spoked through the phone from her office.

"Yup, just having an after mission snack and playtime." Kaz casually mentioned, waving a disembodied arm while eating.

"Are you eating the fucking body?!" she shouted, making everyone out in the hallway look over into her office.

"What?! No! I'm eating a hot dog the guy had while playing with his arm. I don't do mouth to skin, only life." Kaz threw the arm up and caught it with his left hand, eating a hot dog with the other hand while sitting on an old leather recliner.

"Oh..." Adira gave a sigh of relief, sitting back on her office chair. She cleared her throat and fixed her feathers. "We have a few new missions- these ones are optional, come back to my office and we'll talk."

"Optional?" Questioned Kaz, being skeptical of the word 'optional' coming from Reeds.

"It's from me, Reeds let me choose a few cases to do." She pulled out a binder that had secondary written on it. "Reeds has been neglecting us..."

"True, we haven't gotten something big in a while." Kaz caught the arm and kept tossing it up and down, getting blood all over the floor and recliner. "But it depends... I'm not hungry or in need of life. I guess I could do some for fun." He stopped for a second and looked at the sealing, thinking of a most likely stupid question, "Hey... um, I know I was with you for like seven years, but what are we? I mean, what does Clearlan do exactly?" Kaz threw the arm backwards into the kitchen sink of the small apartment.

"Wha- what- I... really?" Adira tried to process such a common, but strange question. "Do you really not know?!"

"Nope."

Kaz heard a sigh through the phone, "We are global peacekeeping and defense organization that deals with anything from enemies of a region to the supernatural. We don't work like the military; we drive the people by jobs and skill groups. We are a high-class hybrid between an infiltrator and an assassin, even though it would normally be a squad of four or five highly trained operatives, I have you." Adira patiently explained the basics or their organization; things that Kaz should've known for a long time.

"Oh, so that's why everyone I killed tasted bitter and salty… Eh, never cared to ask, or even to pay much attention." He turned onto the news and placed a pillow behind his head. "I'll be back there in an hour, I'm going to relax for a bit." Kaz hung up and laid back on the recliner.

 **This was actually fun, I know this won't get any views, but that doesn't matter, I do this for fun and stress relief.**

 **Hope you guys enjoy your holiday and have a happy new year. SEE YA!**


	2. Life Changes- You Change

**I'm gonna see how long this takes to finish...**

 **Yes, this was a production beta-read by IcyNirvana; I'm so thankful that he exists!**

Kaz joyfully walked into Adira's office, whistling a happy tune, and took a seat in a chair next to her. "I'm having a good day! It's three in the afternoon and I've already killed somebody, ate, and watched television!" He lazily slouched in his chair and relaxed, "So, tell me 'bout the hits, I could do one today."

Grabbing a black leather binder, Adira opened up to a marked tap that said 'CO62-3', which is a combination of letters and numbers indicating the criminal activity, followed by case number and class. "Okay, first we got a third class CO, number 62." She unhooked the folder from the binder and looked inside. While Adira did that she mentioned, "Reeds seems to think these cases are too unimportant for us to worry about, saying our resources should be used to stop wars and catch criminals with the capability of terrorizing a region." She placed the papers on the desk, "So this one is kinda strange… It says little is known, there's no species, no height, no name- we know nothing! All we know is that there MAYBE two, one male and another female, and that they have access to military grade equipment." Adira crossed her legs and looked up at Kaz, "Any thoughts or comments on this shit show?"

Kaz smirked with a little glint in his eyes; always taking pleasure in giving their intel department crap, "Many... first one is obvious, why did Reeds ignore this case!? Those two have been a well-known problem for years. Second, why does our intelligence department suck so much? And lastly, bravo to those two; they stayed a secret from us even with all those military guns and vehicles- like damn!"

Adira covered her face with her hands in disappointment, but still chuckled by how amusing it was watching them try. "Most of those questions you asked can't be answers by me..." She sighed and flipped to the next tap in advance. "We got a hit?"

"Naw, it's really fun watching this mockery we call a police department try to catch them, and as long as I'm entertained by this I'll let it go on." With his right hand, Kaz picked up two glass paperweight balls and played with them, spinning them in his hand. "Next..."

Adira opened another folder from the binder, "This one is simple: case UD209-2. Appearance says its male human, age unknown, location unknown, and that he's tall. We do know that he's a black market dealer that sells Pokémon furs and skins." She handed Kaz a few pictures of the bloody damage the hunter left in his wake.

"Wait, are we only doing blacklight cases? I don't want to become Clearlan's fetch hound..." Kaz said in a disgusted tone, thinking higher of himself and his place in Clearlan. "But I'm interested in this one. Next."

"Kaz, look, I'm really sorry, but these were the only cases Reeds let me have... Things have been slow lately." Adira flipped to the last tap that said SC10-U and read it to Kaz. "Last case: special containment, case 10, class unknown. We suspect that he is one of yours because we have documentation of his existence from about 95 years ago, and the pictures we've taken shows that he hasn't aged." She felt a little skeptical about taking this case, but it was all she could get at that time. "I don't know why Reeds kept putting this one on the backburner for so long; would've thought this as a priority."

Kaz placed down the balls, giving more weight to this case than the others." Bio, now." His tone became brisk and harsh.

Adira was taken back by the way he acted; Kaz has never taken anything this seriously, but maybe it was because he was hunting down his own kind. "We actually know a lot; he's a white male 'human', six four, has a brother with two Pokémon-"

"Name." Kaz demanded, not caring for any more details.

She raised her hands and backed up, getting her ass out of the way, "I know this might be personal, I would like to NOT have more people with your powers walking around, but he's not giving us propels so you can leave-" Adira was cut off by a stern look from Kaz followed by a menacing growl.

"Name!" Last thing he wanted was an excuse- nor did he have the patience for excuse when he dealt with his kind.

"Lewis Freeman, born in-" Again Kaz cut off Adira; annoying her just a bit more.

"I don't care about the stupid date of birth!" Kaz grabbed the file from Adira's hand and set it on fire, "we will NEVER do this case- we won't even consider the thought of doing this case!" He threw the burning file into Adira's metal trash can and opened the window to let the smoke out. Midway through his threat a subtle undertone of fear could be heard; just enough for Adira to notice but not for her to mention.

"HEY! Don't burn the fucking files! I order you to calm the fuck down and explain!" Adira shouted at Kaz as she stood up and grabbed him the collar of his shirt, pushing him against the wall. "Tell me everything."

Kaz calmed himself down, becoming a little scared and a little faltered by the way she controlled him. His tone and expression went from fear and anger to his normal nonchalant self. "After all these years... you never forgot you were my master." A smile crept onto his face, "If you let go of me I'll tell you."

Letting out a sigh, Adira looked at the closest thing she had to a friend and let go of his shirt. "The thought of a Pokémon being your master will never get old..." She smiled and took her seat, turning on the window fan to get the smell of smoke out of the room. "I've never seen you react like that, so please explain."

Kaz straightened his shirt, "Adira~ it's very important for us to not get in his way. If he really wanted, he could single handedly destroy an entire region without a thought, so trying anything with him is risky to say the least."

Adira contemplated the type of power needed to do such damage. "But shouldn't we try to contain this type of power?"

"No! That's the last thing we should ever do! Don't you understand, he will chew me up and spit me out if we got into a fight. He is quite literally a god- a young one at that, but nonetheless, powerful enough to wipe out this planet!" Kaz insisted, trying his hardest to explain to Adira what they would be facing.

"Then why hasn't world gone to shit if things that powerful are walking around?" Adira insisted in going after Lewis.

"It's not like we just walk around doing whatever, we have higher powers at work. We, as the sol, are not an ambitious species, even if we are more powerful than most legendaries we don't care for the petty problems you guys have. We have three jobs: keep the two stem lopes alive for the next cycle, keep the universe working, and maintain balance- look... there's too much to explain to you, things that are too confusing for most people, things that I'm not at the liberty to say!" Kaz was losing his patience; he hated it when mortals couldn't understand the risks of playing with gods, be it legendaries or sols.

"But, but w-we can't just stand around!" Adira had no idea what Kaz was talking about, she had no idea how deep the sol hierarchy went; all she really wanted was to keep the world safe.

"For the sake of everything living, please understand that we are powerless in this situation... sometimes there's nothing we can do." Kaz was finally able to convince Adira that butting-heads with Lewis was basically suicide.

Adira sat back in her chair and closed her eyes for a bit. "I know... I just don't like feeling helpless, but I understand what you mean..."

"Just don't tell Reeds about this; he's a stubborn one, and you know if he catches wind of this he'll make this our priority. But don't stress about it, Stephen; my associate has it all under control," Kaz assured Adira in relaxed way; knowing that Stephen could handle an untrained Lewis.

* * *

Stephen frantically ran around in his Library of Babel shouting obscenities as he looked through trillions of years of information. "What is wrong with this cycle, nothing makes SENSE! This is the end! Why is there a Zoroark there?! What the fuck! It's a Goodra!? Time is caving in! Shit, shit, shit, SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING! WHAT DO I DO!? ERIC HELP!"

* * *

"…So, are you gonna take any of these cases?" Adria asked Kaz, putting away the file binder and turning off the fan.

"I'll go for the hunter." He grabbed his engraved gold plated lighter and pack of cigarettes he forgot in the office, "It'll be like a normal day; I'll grab a car, go to the place, get food and/or play with it, then I'll be on my way!" Kaz placed a cigar in his mouth and lit it with his lighter, blowing the smoke out of his nose.

"Before I have Reeds come in here complaining about you, I'll set down some rules. Don't steal someone's car, don't crash into someone's car, once you get the guy don't make a bloody mess of the body, and whatever you do, for fuck sakes don't crash a car painted in blood into a Dairy Queen!" Adira inhaled deeply after ranting about all the dumb bullshit Kaz has done in the past. "I am really tired of sending fruit basket to everyone you've came in contact with when you're out on your missions."

Kaz grabbed an apple out of his pocket and took a bite out of it just to look like an asshole. "Got it, be back." He walked out and closed the door behind himself.

 _5 hours la-_

"Wait, I forgot something really important!" Kaz quickly walked back in and grabbed Adira's case binder. "I didn't get the sample number for the evidence box." He flipped through the binder trying to find the file.

Adira smirked and waved a piece of paper around. "I knew you would forget that." Kaz grabbed the paper from her and read the numbers 7355608; that being the tracking code of the evidence box for that case.

"Thanks!" Kaz walked out, this time leaving the door open.

Adira sighed, "He should've learned how to close a door by now... or does he do it on purpose?"

 _5 hours later..._

The sky darkened as night fell upon an old, lonely cabin sat in the middle of a forest. A man with a rifle slowly opened the door into the cabin. He turned on the lights to reveal an average sized three room wooden cabin lined with Pokémon pelts, trophies, and furs; some for sale and some to keep. "You have quite the collection..." The man heard a voice from the living room directly in front of him.

"W-who are you?" The man aimed his gun at the spinning chair that sat in front of the fireplace.

The chair slowly spun around to reveal Kaz sitting in it while holding a hat made of Blaziken feathers. "They're such beautiful creatures... wouldn't you agree?" He ran his finger across the silky feathers of the hat. "They are strong, prideful... brave." Kaz gently laid the hat down on a table to his right and said with a disgusted tone, "Unlike you. Prideful of your weaknesses, showing it to the world as if it was hard killing for money."

The man's gun followed Kaz's head as Kaz stood up. "I've killed people too; don't think I won't do it to you." The man took aim as Kaz slowly walked forward "You fuckin' did this to yourself!" He fired and blew off the top of Kaz's head.

Even with the entire top part of his head blown off, Kaz continued to calmly talk while blood spewed out from his head. "I've dealt with many people like you, but YOU disgust me. You made this personal. You are a threat to the only thing I hold close..." The man quickly reloaded another bullet and shot a hole through Kaz's heart, leaving a thick trail of bright red blood on the wooden floor. "You're a joke; I've taken cannon balls to the face, that small .308 won't do jack diddly shit to me!"

The man stuttered backwards until his back hit the door, "W-w-what a-are you?!" He dropped his bolt-action sniper and pulled out a CZ-75. Aiming with trembling hands he started firing an automatic rain of bullets at Kaz. "DIE YOU MONSTER!"

Kaz chuckled as the bullets merely tickled him, "If it makes you feel better, I won't enjoy having you inside me either." Tentacles exploded out from his head and every bullet hole on his body. "Now look what you've done, I'm like a hentai wonderland!" Kaz cackled as he swayed to and fro with every step forward.

The gun clicked out of ammo, "Fuck!" The hunter slammed the door open and ran for it. But before he could get too far a thick rope of flesh snagged him by the leg, tripping him face first into the ground. The man tried to crawl away while spitting out dirt and grass, but he was violently dragged back inside the house while screaming and clawing the ground.

"Why do they always run...?" The man heard a menacing, dark growl behind him, making his scream into a meek whimper. He looked behind him to see a towering monster standing at twelve feet, a vertical mouth that composed two-thirds of its body opened up, exposing thousands of sharp teeth. The black tower looked down upon the pitiful hunter, as three glowing blue eyes stared into his soul. "Welcome to the family..."

"NO, NO, NO! AHHH!" Screams came from the house for just a second, then silence followed.

* * *

Kaz grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called Adira. The phone rang two times before she picked up. "K-Kaz, You've been gone for seven hours now, what have you been doing all this time?" she said in a worried and equally annoyed tone because he hadn't answer her last nineteen calls.

"I'm entertaining myself..." Kaz was sitting on the soft grass outside, feeling the warm heat of the now burning cabin; that was one of the few moments he actually felt happy about something. "Now, I did do ALMOST everything you asked me to do, but the guy is a little... overdone..."

Kaz lightly smiled as he heard a disappointed sigh, "You burnt the body, didn't you...?"

"I got carried away… Look, I know the forensics team aren't really fond of my actions, but I believe they will understand why I burnt down the house." Kaz moved the phone away from his ears and silently chuckled.

"YOU FUCKIN' WAT!?" Kaz heard a mug break in the background as she furiously screamed at him. "DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY HATE ME BECAUSE OF YOU?!"

"You're going to burst a blood vessel if you keep going. If you stop screaming I'll tell you why they won't get mad at you, and how I can get Reeds off your back." Kaz spoke with an _almost_ sarcastically soft tone, all while weaving a tiny basket out of the long blades of grass.

"Ohhh please do~" At that very moment Adira just stopped giving a fuck about life, like the fuck amount she could give was zero divided by nine, eating Doritos with Coke, telling an orphan Christmas was canceled, that was how she felt. Ever since Kaz joined, her paycheck got bigger, but at the same time she had to do piles of paperwork after every mission he did, and she got moved to a smaller office because of 'office space management' since she only had two in a squad.

"If they didn't have me- okay, listen closely; if they didn't have me on their side... they wouldn't get those tough cases done. They need me to help them- I help them to help themselves." He realized how utterly narcissistic that entire statement was, even if it was true to a certain extent. Kaz waited for a few seconds, hearing nothing but silence from Adira's side.

She let out the most disappointed sigh imaginable, "You realize that they've tried to suspend you over fifty times... and that your only argument is 'bitch I eat people'... surprisingly that's all you need to convince Reeds not to totally exile you from this region..." In her office, Adira laid back in her chair and closed her eyes, loosely holding onto the phone as she rubbed her tired eyes.

"But it works. Doesn't it? Look, I'm not the most scientific person, so they don't get along with me. Y'know, fuckin' magnets, how do they work?" He placed a mago berry he'd stole from the now burning house into the small grass basket he wove. Kaz waited for a response while having the snarkiest/smart-ass smirk.

"Fuck you, just… fuck you." Adira said with no emotion, then hung up.

Kaz stored his phone back in his jean pocket and stood up, cleaning his pants of grass. "She says that to me right now, but she never met Stephen." Kaz scoffed and took one final look at the burning house, giving it a warm smile. As he contemplated the fire he felt an odd wave run through his body; a familiar wave of energy, one that brought him much joy, as it brought him an equal amount of pain. Kaz had a blank expression as he fell to his knees, being speechless from the amount of pain he felt in every bone of his body. The right side of his upper body started to rip open as his entire being started to pull apart, his skin giving way to scaly black thorns while his muscles started to wither. In an instant of searing hot pain became a numbness that swept through his mind as he collapsed from exhaustion.

 _~MOthEr: Memory_bank\error. Time relapse imminent… Awaiting input _ . . . Patch() … … … relapse postponed .9999.9..9.999o1 Cycles~_

"H-hello... Mister? Mister... are you o-okay?" a young, gentile voice meekly spoke over Kaz. "I think something is... umm, wrong with y-your skin." Kaz grunted and rolled over, taking in a deep breath then slowly exhaling. He opened his eyes and looked up at the Vulpix staring down at him. Kaz sat up and looked around, feeling a bit disoriented by the time of day; being that the sun was in the middle if the sky and the house was now only a pile of ash. "Whoa... uhhh, y-y-your face... is it hurting? I mean there's nothing wrong- my mom could help you, or something."

Kaz looked at his phone; thirty missed calls, but thankfully only ten hours have passed, "Thanks for the offer, kid, but I need to get going right now." He went to get a cigarette from his pocket when he noticed how bad his arm looked- how bad a quarter of his body looked. Everything from his right cheek to his lower right ribs had ripped open and become a mess of large thorns, rough black skin, and withered muscles connected to his bones; he could even see his heart beating. He ran his hands down his face, only to feel his right cheek baron of normal skin, replaced by more exposed muscle and scales. "Do I really look that bad?" Kaz fearfully questioned the Vulpix while looking at his black, monster-like hand that had three dark purple claws for fingers.

The Vulpix hesitantly nodded, "Y-yes, s-sir."

Kaz calmly yawned and pulled out a cigarette with his surprisingly nimble claws; that being because he was using his right arm and not his left. "Welp, looks like I'll have to fix that~ Tell me, what's your name, little Vulpix?" Kaz looked at the scared and confused Pokémon while waving an unlighted cigar around.

The little Vulpix looked down, being scared of Kaz's cold stare and the whole part-man-part-monster thing, but reluctantly answered: "M-Mikey..."

"Well Mikey, you're a good boy to offer me help, but I can handle myself- what you could do is light my cigar 'cause my lighter has fused to me from my now non-existent breast pocket. So, would you kindly?" Kaz warmly smiled as he knew the young Vulpix couldn't understand half the big words he'd said.

"I think- I mean I can- I mean... sure." The little Vulpix flinched as Kaz brought the cigarette close to his face, and in turn also bring the mutated hand closer. He looked at the scary claw holding the cigar and sheepishly blew a small flame out of his mouth, lighting the tip of the cigar.

"Thanks, kid." Kaz rubbed the shy Vulpix's head and placed the cigarette in his mouth. "Hey, sorry for scaring you, take this as a gift for your kindness..." He placed a small grass basket with a berry in front of the now confused Vulpix. "I wish we could talk more, but time is of the essence right now." Kaz stood up and fixed his hair and whatever was left of his shirt, walking passed the still confused Pokémon.

"Wait, mister!" The Vulpix called for Kaz, "Where are you going?" He said with the basket now in his mouth.

Kaz smirked at the adorable Pokémon, "I'm going to meet someone that I've said goodbye to a very long time ago..." then walked away into the forest, leaving the little fox in the middle of a clearing with a basket in his mouth.

 **Hey, glad you read all the way to this point! I'm enjoying this.**

 **~Drunkenturtles: Pe/\k\error. Fatigue… Awaiting input _ . . . Bye() … … … next chapter postponed .9999.9..9.999o1 Cycles~**


	3. Adventure: Start (In a Smoky Bar)

**This was beta-read by great IcyNirvana{Wulfy}… Oh and sorry I have been taking so long between uploads, I've just been so busy lately and now I'm re-writing all my past stories one by one… T~T**

Kaz walked through the forest, calmly smoking his cigar. Walking through the rings of smoke he blew for fun, he found an empty spot in the forest with not much else around but trees. He leaned on one of the countless trees, closed his eyes and felt his surroundings for a weak spot in his reality. To his delighted surprise, there was a very small hole under his feet- but he could work with that.

"Haven't done this in a very long time but my intuition is still on point! Now, let's see if Stephen can help me... Hope he recognizes my new body." He stepped away from the tree and took a seat, crossing his legs. With a deep exhale he concentrated the little energy he had left and opened a backdoor to Stephen's world. A rectangular white portal quickly raised from the ground, white blades of grass flying out of the portal and gently landing on Kaz's lap. He stepped towards the door and while looking into the light, he said: "It's one for the two and two for the fall... here we go!" Kaz walked into the portal, taking a complete leap of faith; not knowing where he would end up in Stephen's crazy world.

From the moment Kaz stepped through, he was falling; and a moment later he hit the hard ground flat on his back, "Fuuuu~" Kaz wheezed and groaned, looking up at the clear blue sky, "These shit-ass portals... throwing me in shit-ass places!" He slowly stood up and looked at where he fell. A beautiful meadow of tall white grass swayed in the wind like waves right next to a huge crystal clear lake- a lake so clear that individual rocks at the bottom could be seen. "What a cock tease! It had to be the hard ground, not the lake a few feet away! AND this stupid grass can't even cushion my fall!" Kaz angrily kicked the soft white grass around him. The harsh sun shined down on his already skin charred as he looked at the miles of white grass.

"The first thing you do is complain that you fell a few feet. Aren't you amazed by this beautiful view? Oh and hi, like the hot new body! Haven't seen you since the war!" Kaz looked behind to the lake where Stephen stood in a long wooden boat, paddling it towards the shore. The front of the boat gently touched land, "Get in, I can see we have a lot to talk about." Kaz shrugged and thought, _I hate how nonchalant he acts…_ then walked onto the boat.

Stepping into the boat, Stephen pushed it offshore with the long paddle, "I'ma ask the obvious question first. Can you fix me?" Kaz displayed his mutated arm to Stephen. "I got a little too happy with how I use my energy," Kaz bluntly lied to Stephen.

Stephen snapped his fingers and fixed Kaz's skin; but only fixing his skin, so Kaz was left with ripped pants and half a shirt. "There. Anything else?"

Taking a seat on the side of the boat, Kaz responded: "Yeah. I haven't been here in a really long time, but I feel like something big is missing... where's the Spine of the World?"

"Oh the Spine. Lewis took that; it's not like I was using it, so I gave it to him..." A worrying thought suddenly came to Stephen's mind, "Hey, how long have you been alive? I haven't seen you in a human body," he asked, a hint of distress lingered in his voice as he looked down into the water.

"A few hundred thousand- if you don't consider my time in service or the time I was in stasis. Why?" Stephen had an uneasy tone to his voice that Kaz had never heard before- one that deeply worried him.

"That's what I was afraid of..." Stephen whispered to himself, "Ever since the original stems died I've slowly became 'blind' to the universe around me. After I brought the remaining sol to earth I started losing sight of them, eventually I assumed all of you guys were dead... But things felt wrong from the start; there were too many glitches and bugs in Mother's code for me to keep track of. Just yesterday a massive rip opened between space and time- which you probably felt. Luckily, thanks to my new apprentice Eric, we got it under control. So it should be completely fixed in about a week or so at most." Stephen continued to calmly paddle to the other side of the lake as square jagged mountains could be seen rising in the distance.

Kaz silently looked over the side of the boat, thinking to himself. The exotic underwater animals swimming under and around the boat gave him a sense of home; some of those were native to their planet and some from other planets "Things are worse than I expected... so who's this new helper, and can he keep Mother running until Lewis is ready?" He nervously tapped his finger against side of the boat.

"Well, let me show you!" Stephen clapped as the paddle kept paddling. Soon enough, two figures suddenly appeared into the boat; one a human and the other a Pokémon.

Looking at the two, Kaz commented with a big smirk, "oh... a temporal sol! I thought these were banned and heavily monitored!" The human was a five-foot-six, brown eyed, light-skin black male with faded brown, short hair; he also had quite the weaponry strapped to his leg. Two matte black, suppressed Uzis made quite the contrast to his casual black jeans and a gray jacket. "I've never see one of you guys… and it seems like you're very well equipped."

"Well of course! There's always someone working in the background to keep the show running don't you know? I need some way to control what's happening on the ground." Stephen uttered with a light chuckle under his breath.

Kaz then glanced at the Pokémon; a shiny Gardevoir to be exact, followed by her more prominent features, "That's an interesting, um… mutation..." he mentioned the sizable breast that a Gardevoir wouldn't normally have. "Adira could use a pair of those~"

Stephen's eyes widened. _That had to be the first thing he said!_ "Wait! No, not on the happy boat!" The peaceful ride had quickly turned into a stand-off, Eric lunged at Kaz with his Uzis as Kaz summoned a black spike from the ground, both weapons inches away from each other's faces. "Clarity, tell Eric to back off! This will not end well for him," Stephen calmly asked Clarity, the Gardevoir, as he continued to paddle.

In her soft feminine voice, Clarity patiently ask: "Sweetie, please don't fight random people for what they said."

"Why? People like him are the ones that took you from your family! You of all people should know that!" Eric aggressively shouted, his finger tight on the trigger.

"He's not completely wrong; I do kill a lot of things." Kaz quickly added.

The rage in Clarity's eyes showed through as Eric mentioned her family, "I told you NOT to talk about them!"

"SHUT UP!" Stephen screamed, getting everybody's attention. Giving out a stressed sigh, he explained: "Eric, if you try to fight Kaz he will destroy you-" _My god, these new sol act like children… even the adapted ones are childish!_

"Why?" Eric interrupted.

"Because…" Stephen was now clearly annoyed, "Kaz is a retired elder guardian, the guy that captured Norr."

Eric backed up as they both retracted their weapons and took a seat next to his beloved Gardevoir. "So he's pre-war, the one that broke the supply lines with his sister, part of the royal division?" Eric now felt relieved that he didn't attack Kaz; knowing his history about Kaz's past.

"Yes, in the flesh," Stephen smiled and happily continued to paddle in peace, relived that things didn't go south. "Now that we're all acquainted, can you guys have a civilized conversation?"

Sweet calmness came over the group, the sound of small waves crashing into the boat were the only audible noise. "Nice to meet you Eric, Hope we can be good friends," Kaz spoke out, reaching for a handshake.

Eric looked at Kaz, then reluctantly shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, too..." He noticed how frigid Kaz's hand were; one of a dead body.

They made some small talk along the way as they waited to hit land on the other side. "So, how old are you and your Pokémon?" Kaz tried to get an idea of Eric's age.

"I'm two thousand years old and she's twenty-seven. Not much to say really…" The boat ride was pleasant, the two talked while Stephen paddled and Clarity rested her head on Eric's shoulder. Suddenly the boat stopped as it hit solid land- something that one must consider in Stephen's world.

"Okay! The end of the ride: The Country!" They all looked out at the unfinished canvas Stephen called The Country. The group stepped off the boat and onto the soft, square ground. There was a gentle give to the ground- like a new carpet but made of many differently-sized square. Background landscapes slowly changed from valleys to rolling hills; an entire region made of clay to be molded and played with at Stephan's will. Stephen looked back at Kaz, "I guess this is where we part ways… It's been a very long time since I've seen you- and it sucks that our time was so sort, but we both have problems to fix..." they traded a smile and an easy sigh as a backdoor portal opened.

"Bye, fam!" Kaz waved to Stephen's group and stepped through the portal into the warm, white light.

* * *

It was late night, around ten. Adira's phone rang as she filled out the final bit of her report papers. She let it ring two times, thinking deeply about what she would say next, then she answered it, "What... What do you want?" the strained, stressed voice of Adira came through Kaz's phone.

"Hey. Adira, we need to talk about some very important things," Kaz's voice was just a tired as Adira's, a disturbing surprise to her.

It was hard for Adira to find the words to respond back, "Uh, o-okay... where?" Kaz was in a state that she'd never seen. To her it was unimaginable to hear his voice so dry and devoid of life.

"Hard Times, back pool table." Then he hung up on her. Adira hastily grabbed a few of her basic items, got dressed in a red leather jacket, and walked out of her office.

* * *

Adira entered the smoky bar. Immediately she saw Kaz at the back standing by a pool table, the light shining down on him while he smoked a cigar. Through the clouds of smoked she walked over to him. "What's up? You look different." Adira mentioned Kaz's clothing change, "and why is there blood on your hands and shirt?"

Kaz looked at his hands and wiped the blood on his ripped shirt, "I got into a fight with this drunk guy... and I stole this leather jacket from a biker gang. But that's beside the point, I need to talk about something actually important." Kaz was serious in his tone, his face looking tired and sickly. "Let's get a drink first, I need it."

They walked to the bar and took a seat on the metal stools. "What can I get you?" the waiter asked.

Kaz rubbed his eyes and quietly asked: "Give me three shots of the best black rum you have..." The waiter glanced at Adira.

She scratched the underside of her beak and thought for a second. "Can I have a light beer?" The waiter looked back at Kaz for his approval.

"No. You're a Pokémon, any amount of alcohol will leave you shit faced! That's the last thing I want at this moment. Give her a coke." The waiter grabbed a coke can from under the counter.

Surprisingly, Adira didn't protest. She opened the can and took a sip, but still, she mumbled under her breath: "But we're good at getting over it too..." Once the waiter had brought Kaz's drink she asked, "Will you say it already? I didn't come halfway across the region of Hoenn to drink coke," she spoke harshly in a low key voice for only Kaz to hear.

"I'm dying- only have a year left in me." The message was clear and concise; straight to the point that frightened both of them. "There is a way to fix it... but I have a week or so at most to do it." Kaz took one of the shots and slammed the glass on the table.

The room became a vacuum to Adira, her chest got heavy with anxiety. "W-What! How do you only have a year, how are you gonna fix this- do you know what's wrong!?" Adira rapid-fired all her questions at Kaz, yet she still had more questions to be answer. Rarely, if at all, did she feel this panicked. Actually, Adira had no idea why she felt like that.

"Calm down... let me explain." Kaz took the second shot, "Once upon a time I had a sister; we were two acting as one... I lost her in a war because of a mistake. It was a coin flip, one of us would be dislocated in time and the other forgotten. The problem was that we completed each other, so killing me would imply that you killed her at the same time. But she didn't die, she stopped existing." He took his last shot and signaled for three more, then continued, "Now, leading to the present day. I'm stuck here, half dead and half alive while consuming living things to slow down the inevitable- that being my death since I use more energy than I take in." Three more strong smelling shots were set in front of the two.

Adira slowly took a sip of her soda again, "I get it, you had a shitty life, but my concern is how are you gonna save yourself?"

"Yesterday, time and space ripped apart very briefly and something drained a metric shit ton of energy from me. This is great because the only reason that would ever happen is if my sis was somewhere outside this reality. All I need to do is located The Spine, somehow get a mezorite crystal, get outside this reality using the Spine and bring her back with the crystal- all within a week of course!" Kaz stated his great plan to Adira with a few simple steps, then took his fourth shot. "At least that's what I could put together from what Stephen told me."

"Can you please stop talking to your imaginary friend 'Stephen'. You say he's with us when there's no one else in the room; it makes things awkward." Adira rubbed her head and slightly yawned. "Anyway, what does this have to do with me? Seems like a personal problem that I have no way of helping."

"I'm not really good when it comes to dealing with people and I'll be going all over the world to get the things I need. So unless you want to be hearing of me on the news, I would recommend you coming with me." Kaz finished his last two remaining shots and pushed the six empty glasses aside.

Laying her head on the countertop, Adira rested her mind, "How- I mean what to do and where to begin? I believe that saving your life is a good excuse for Reeds, but I need more than just a 'plan' ..." Her gaze started drifting and her eyelids became heavy, the stress of the day catching up to her.

"Wake up!" Kaz poked the sleeping Blaziken in the ribs.

A quick burst of adrenaline ran through Adira's body as her head shot up, "I wasn't sleeping! Just resting."

Kaz signaled the waiter for the bill with a credit card in hand and a short whistle, "Whatever you say... Let's go home, you're too tired for me to go into details, and it's not like I have a map on me to correctly explain." A quick swipe of the card and they both left the bar. They were quite a sight to look at: a man with blood-stained, ripped clothes and a half asleep Blaziken walking out of a bar at eleven in the night. "I'll drive- not like I can get drunk." Kaz opened the passenger door for Adira and help her into their black BMW.

"Thanks..." Adira reclined the seat backwards and had some shut eye, just as she was about to fall asleep she asked: "What's your sister's name?"

Kaz smiled as he began the 30 minute drive, "Dey"

"Dey huh... cute~" Then she passed out.

 **Done! I hope it was somewhat good? I don't know any more, I just hope it makes sense when it all comes together- only a few years of planning right?**


	4. All That Matters is the Here, And Now

**I've finally got my life together (for now) and I've been doing more writing on this story, on my main story, and story rewrites.**

 **Beta-read by IcyNirvana (Wulfy) :3**

Early morning and the Pidgies were already singing outside Kaz's window. He groaned as the sun shined on his face, "…I need to get blinds… ugh, why is so hot in here!" Looking down Kaz saw a sleeping Blaziken laying her head on his chest, hugging him tight. "Dammit… Adira, get off." Kaz shook Adira awake as she looked up at him innocently. "I said you could sleep in my bed, not with me, and a lot less spooning me." His manner was calm because he had dealt with this before, mostly when Adira had her existential crises and with a can of light beer.

"Oh shit!" Adira jumped off Kaz with lightning-speed reactions. She backed up to the other end of the bed, feeling her body heat up from the embarrassment. Sitting at the edge of the bed, Adira let out a depressed sigh. "I-I'm sorry… I have no idea what happened last night. I just felt lonely and a bit depressed, in all honesty… you are the only company I have…"

"It's fine." Kaz leaned over and grabbed a red shirt from the ground, threw it on his bare chest, then strapped a belt on his sagging jeans. "I'm not annoyed, but I'm never gonna like it."

Adira looked over to the clock; it read 8:43 AM, and let out a sad sigh, "Your life is on the clock now… We should make every minute count considering your situation." She fixed her feathers and yawned, sluggishly standing up. "So… what's the plan?"

"Oh yes! Let's go over the plan, thought a lot about it during our car ride. Come over to the living room." Kaz walked out of his room and into their small living room, picking up some old coffee from the kitchen window. He opened a map of the world and drank the stale cup of coffee, "Ugh, tastes like dirt water..." Kaz placed the cup on one end of the map to hold it open, then went onto explain: "Okay! Our main goal is to locate the spine; which is our only way of getting to my sister. Along the way, we'll make two stops, first one is a man known as the Merchant to get the crystal and some fragments that might come in handy. Second thing- in no particular order, we'll get my friend Tesa Tachibana because I will need her powers for a lot of things." Kaz tried to take another sip of the old coffee and cringed at his dumb decision, placing it back on the map.

Adira pulled up a chair and turned it around, resting his chin on the backrest. "Okay… I know most of my questions will be answered along the way, as you normally do. But who is your friend? Is she a sol too?"

"Well… she'll come in handy if things come down to a fight with Lewis." He awkwardly looked away and scratched his nose, "Don't even say it, I know he's the man that gave me a tantrum… Aaanyway, when that rip happened, it echoed off The Spine and because of that I know the diffraction angles needed to triangulate-"

"The what angle?!" Adira carefully leaned her chair forward onto the table as a balancing act. "It's way too early in the morning for this kinda of shit~"

Kaz sighed, "Just pay attention to the basic ideas. 'Kay?"

"Sure, whatever..." Adira's answer was good enough for Kaz.

He continued, "We need to get going as fast as possible. I've already got a plane ticket to Unova, where we'll visit the merchant for the item we need. Then we go to Kanto to get Tesa- luckily there is a refraction angle located in her region and the other one was in this region, so we only need one more." Kaz placed the tickets on the table and the needed money for their journey.

Adira was taken aback, "Whoa! Where did you get that sort of money!?"

"It doesn't matter. Get ready, I'll pack the bags." Kaz strolled off to the bathroom to gather their toiletries as Adria got their clothes. They placed all the items, or more accurately, Adira did, on the couch to packed their travel bag.

"Oh, and you'll need this since we're out of our jurisdiction and completely off the files." Kaz laid a Smith and Wesson 500 on top of the clothes.

"The fuck?! I don't even know how to use this!" A scoff of confusion came from the Blaziken as she picked up the gun with two fingers.

Snatching the gun, Kaz apologized, "Sorry, what was I thinking? Have a P250-"

"Where are these guns coming from!?"

"No that's still too strong... Ah! This will work, have a Beretta 9mm." Kaz took and gave guns that he pulled out of his body, finally settling on a low power pistol for Adira's first gun.

"But why do I need a gun, and how are you gonna sneak a gun through airport security?" She continued to push the gun aside to pack the bags.

"Well I can just put them in me- I'm great for storage" Kaz shoved the pistol back into his side while letting out a little giggle from the tickle he got, "You'll need a gun because there's no back up for us, so you never know when one will come in handy." He helped Adira pack a bag and marked it with yellow tape, then stuffed one carry-on bag with money, phone chargers, a bunch of emergency medical supplies, and fake identifications.

"Fine, I'll use a gun for once..." They packed their bags, took a shower and ate some food before taking a taxi to the Sinnoh International Airport. To Adira's relief, Kaz got through airport security just fine with some 3 guns inside him. They took the 1pm flight to Unova. The flight was long and uneventful and Kaz felt relieved as they touched down 5 hours later.

Going through the motions of getting off the plane, Adira mentioned to Kaz, "I don't like being outside our region, there could be a foundation interested in you." She grabbed the carry-on bag from the luggage compartment and slung it over her back.

"You'll be safe with me," Kaz reassured his partner while fixing his clothes as he stood up.

"Coming from the thing that kills to live... very reassuring." Kaz didn't take kindly to Adira's words, but decided not to continue the discussion as they walked off the plane.

As always, Adira got mildly nervous as Kaz went through security; this time giving him a pat down. For obvious reasons Kaz hated close contact and was on the brink of shoving one person's head into another person's ass; which has happened before. Thankfully; he kept his calm throughout the search. "These guys are so damn lucky I learned to control my temper! When that guy got his hand between my legs I swear-"

Adira grabbed him by the arm and slowed his pace down, "We're still in the airport, wait until we're in the hotel to get angry. It's not worth blowing our cover over that." They walked down to the luggage pick-up area near a hall lined with small shops for food and gifts. Kaz picked up their marked bag with yellow tape and proceeded to the exit down an escalator. Adira managed to wave down a taxi in the bustling airport. Adira took a seat on the left side of the car and looked at the hotel card Kaz gave her. "Can you bring us to the Mildew Hotel in Castelia City?" The taxi driver nodded his head and opened the trunk for Kaz.

"Why did we have to bring such a big bag; it's the first thing I'm leaving behind if shit gets real." Kaz complained while getting into the car then tried to light a cigarette. Adira flicked it out of his mouth, making Kaz visually pissed off. "I'm just saying, lots of zealots hate me and I'm wanted by many powerful people, so if we get caught at an airport by them then that bag is the first thing getting left behind." He playfully gave the taxi driver a pat on the shoulder and laughed, "Don't mind our conversation, we have a fun life."

The driver waved it off and looked into the rear-view mirror, smiling at them, "Eh, don't worry about it; I've seen mobsters trade money and guns, politicians lie through their teeth, and a threeway make out session in the back of my cab, heh." The driver had a thick downtown accent.

"You see, Adira, this guy knows how to live! Take notes..." With a foolish laugh, Kaz put on his headphones and listened to music on the ride to the hotel.

Meanwhile, Adira look at the marvelous city through the water-droplet decorated window of the taxi. The big city seemed mesmerizing as the lights from the cars and buildings illuminated the city like the clear night sky. Adira reminisced on broken promises and dead dreams she had, the ones she was promised by her old partner. Leaving her home region was a dream she thought would never happen, one that she'd forgotten completely until Kaz said they would be traveling. Honestly, being in the big city gave her a melancholy feeling or something resembling the warm regret of dead dreams being brought back life in an old, worn down state. Living a vision of her future she had in past being through a film grain. Adira was too caught up in painful memories and self-reflection of her past to realize that they had arrived at the hotel.

Kaz gently nudged Adira on the shoulder, "Hey, we're here. You've been so busy looking out that window that you haven't even seen how awesome this place looks!" He walked out of the car and looked at architectural beauty of the hotel, well, two hotels. They were staying at the mildew, but across the street was the Honeydew. The two golden spires were connected by a walk way made of glass and polished metal; one of the countless gems of that city. "I mean sure, I had monuments and religions made for me but I never get tired of shiny things."

Most of the time Kaz annoyed Adria, but this time he was right about how amazing the place was. To call it a hotel was an understatement, to Adira it was a palace or a castle compared to her humble apartment. "Woah... shit. This is not what I expected. How much money do you have?!" she asked Kaz while grabbing their luggage from the taxi.

"A lot. I like to save up- I mean, it's not like I'm payed for my work, so I steal from my targets." He gave the diver a hefty tip and Adira a mischievous smile.

Rolling her eyes, Adira could only imagine how many codes of ethics that breaks. "You know Kaz, I used to hate you, but now I've learned to appreciate you from a distance." Kaz awkwardly chuckled as they went to check in inside a lobby that looked more like a ballroom with a crystal chandelier. "Seriously, you're annoying, loud, and a downright shit head, but I couldn't imagine having my life any other way. At first I thought I could tame you and control you, but eventually I realized there was no point in doing that with something as old and as powerful as you. Even though you afford me the luxury of 'commanding' you, I find life much more fulfilling if I don't. So… thanks for working with me and teaching me how not be an uptight asshole."

"Umm, I'm not very good with emotional stuff, hehe..." Kaz nervously laughed, not knowing how to react to intimacy, especially from Adira. "I-I'm happy I could give to you what I can't have." He awkwardly laughed again.

The two stayed quiet throughout the elevator ride up to their floor. The bell boy brought their bags into the room, "If you need anything there's a button, just press it and an assistant will be there to help you." The bell boy explained then took his leave. Not wanting to waste time, Kaz and Adira unpacked their bags as fast as possible and pulled out a map of the region.

"Today we're going to the Merchant," Kaz pointed out a remote location inside a forest, miles from civilization. "I know you're tired after the long flight, but we can't waste time."

Adira flopped onto their king-sized bed and sighed, "We literally just got here, I want to rest and eat something before doing anything else!"

Occasionally, Kaz would forget that living things eat, "Okay, we can get something to eat and you'll rest on the way there. We'll take a cab as far as possible then I'll carry you the rest of the way."

"Just leave me here..." Adira rolled around on the bed and in between the blankets, "Please."

Kaz took a seat on the edge of the bed, "I know you can handle yourself, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take. Your gonna eat and then we're out; if you want you can take a shower before that." He had made his stance very clear: no risks will be taken.

The bedsheets were tossed at Kaz, covering him, "I'll take a shower then" Adira huffed and walked into their also 'king sized' bathroom. "Why don't you take a shower, too?"

Kaz threw the blankets back onto the bed, "I'm self-cleaning and/or magical, I only take showers to clean my hair."

"Whatever, just don't kill someone while I'm gone," Adira closed the elegantly designed wooden door and left Kaz to handle the rest of the unpacking. Half an hour later, she walked out of the steaming bathroom to find a mess of her their items, scattered on the floor yet surprisingly organized. Map on the ground, clothes strewn about, weapons on top of a black box, and warm food from room service. "Oh, food?"

"I got you an assortment of fruits and smoked salmon with a side of vegetables. You see, I think of you." Kaz placed the food on the study along with an engraved silver fork and knife wrapped in a silk napkin. He kept in mind the best diet for a female Blaziken.

Adira dried her feather and threw the towel onto the bed, going straight for the food. "Thanks, I'm starving!" She completely ignored the silverware and started eating with her hands. This was something Kaz should've expected since using silverware for her was a hassle, only to be used in public. "Damn, this shit goood! When I get back I want more of this!" Within seven minutes she had completely devoured her food, "Okay, let's go!" After a good meal, she seemed energized and ready for the long trip ahead.

"Glad to see that food put some new life into you," Kaz hastily threw their clothes and guns into their bag, grabbing only the map, money, the black box and a backpack. "We'll be taking a taxi to Icirrus city and then we go straight north into the forests. Once we find a river, we'll follow it upstream until we find a cave near a waterfall. The whole thing will be a two-hour journey, are you ready?" Kaz asked his partner as he packed the backpack with the required supplies for their trip.

"Yeah, I'm ready. But once we get to the city, I want to eat some more before making our way to the cave." Wiping her beak, Adira walked out their room and locked the door behind them, walking down the pearly white halls and towards the elevator. They got into a BMW with a small yellow sign that said taxi on the roof. "I expected a 'taxi', not a private driver, heh."

"If we're gonna be in a car for the next forty-five minutes you bet I'd spend the extra money to ride in comfort." The driver walked out and opened the door of the truck to a luxurious inside with LED lights, drinks at their disposal, TV, WiFi Hotspot, and probably seat warmers too. Kaz help Adira's hand, helping her up, and took a seat next to her. "Soda?" Kaz opened a can of Coca-Cola for himself as the driver got into the car and drove off.

"No thanks... does he know where we're going?" Adira leaned back on the leather seat and changed the lights from a cool white to a relaxed purple using a controller built into their arm rest.

"Duh, I told him and already paid him through the Internet while you were in your shower. Kaz finished his coke, "On a completely different topic, I've been alive for a very long time and the Internet has always astonished me, it's like a series of tubes that never forgets."

Adira rolled her eyes and looked out of the window. "You're such a wonder." She fell asleep a few minutes later, only to wake up once they had arrived at the city. To Adira, Icirrus city was more of a large town than a city. They ate some homemade food at a roadside bar in the center of the city and headed north, following Kaz like he was a human compass. They took an overgrown trail going through the forest. Adria shivered a little as the night was quite cold and the damp, dark forest didn't help make things any warmer.

"Kaz, can you carry me, preferably in a warm and safe way?" Adria leaned on Kaz's shoulder.

"We just started the walk, how are you tired?!" Kaz sighed and dragged Adira along with him.

"The food..."

"Fine, at least we can move faster," Kaz stepped back and looked around, "And you're paying for new clothes" The sound of clothes ripping could be heard as Kaz's back ripped open, his body turning inside out. A figure of an oversized Mightyena formed from the blob, the fur on its back much longer and thicker, it's paws were the hands of an avian, and its head was an extension of its neck stub. The extended neck had no mouth or nose to breath or speak with, only four, evenly placed blue eyes that left streaks of light as they moved.

"Get on," Kaz spoke in a deep growl, the voice coming from cuts hidden amongst the neck fur. He'd taken the form of something familiar yet monstrous and distorted.

Adira hesitated a little; this was the first time he'd done that and the form he took was well over twice her size. She climbed onto Kaz's back, the fur comfortably nestling Adria, "Well you got the warm part right," she held onto the long, soft fur in some form of a hug. Kaz started moving at a brisk pace with long strides, the fur blocking most of the wind as Kaz's wide pack allowed Adira to comfortably rest on him.

"Oh no, you ain't sleepin', you chose to ride so you're gonna get a _ride_ ," Kaz snickered as Adira swallowed her fears down and tightened her hold on his body, "I'm fast enough to catch you if you fall, hehe..." and with that he went into a full sprint, a sprint so fast that Adira was forced to hide her face in the fur since the wind made it hard to breath. "I'm fast as fuck, boi!"

Along the ride, Adira remembered hearing the rustling of trees fade into the sound of flowing water as they followed alongside the river, mixed in with the breathing and running from Kaz, even a section where they went completely vertical. After another fifteen minutes of travel Kaz stopped at the base of a waterfall. "We're here." He stood up as Adira unmounted him, then walked forward into the waterfall. That season had rained very little so he could block the water for Adira to enter the cave.

Adira pulled a flashlight out of the backpack and illuminated her path as Kaz took the lead since he had no problems seeing in the dark. The cave system was surprisingly deep and went on for quite a while. They found themselves looking at an old, molded vault door a little bit taller than Adira. Kaz opened the door with a horrible, screeching metallic sound as rust powder fell from the door. To Adira's surprise, the inside of the vault was a disinfection chamber with plastic tubes decorating the white walls, a sterile scent wafting into the stale air of the cave. "Go on." Kaz pushed Adira forward and proceeded into the chamber while shrinking in size to fit within the confines.

"Close the door," a withered man crackled through the speakers. And so Kaz did, closing the thick steel door with some effort. "Welcome back... what do you bring?"

Kaz reached into his chest and pulled out a small black box, "Trant nanotech medicine, top of the line- with the activation chip." He opened the box to expose 4 vials of black liquid next to a small chip surrounded by foam. On the lid were instructions on the proper use of the medicine. "To trade for mezorite fragments big enough to fit on the tip of a 9mm bullet. Also, a mezorite crystal large enough to fit a powerful lope inside… I'll offer a year of my service."

A thinking groan could be heard through the speaker, "Yes… Always good doing business with you... sol." The door at the other end opened and out of it appeared a man... or a machine. It was an elderly, pale, meek man that stood at a tiny four feet. Tubes and wires jutted out of his back, weaving in and out of his body in a mangled mass of life support systems. Teeth replaced by implants, trachea replaced by a plastic tube, both eyes replaced by an array of lenses and sensors; truly a feeble attempt at humanity.

Kaz closed the box and placed it in a collection bin embedded into the chamber, "How many will that give me?" The Merchant handed Kaz a small rag tied up with a red string. He unraveled the rag and counted a total of five crystals each about 6mm and a long, dark amber crystal shaped like a normal quartz crystal. "Thank you, old friend."

The merchant nodded, "I will make good use of these..." then went back into his lair, parting ways once again.

...

The crescent moon was high in the sky, the stars and galaxy clearly visible from their place far away from the city. "Woah... looking at this makes me feel so small." Adria and Kaz stood on the waterfall's edge above the cave, looking up at the heaven above, "This is amazing… Thanks for bringing me here!" Adria hugged Kaz's larger-than-life form, his fur keeping the fire-type warm in the cool breeze.

"I hope you realize I'm using my energy to stay warm for you, so you can't say I don't sacrifice myself for you." Kaz let out a small laugh and moved closer to his partner.

"Oh, so now when you're dying you become a nice guy, heh…" Adira made some fun banter with her friend as they both briefly chuckled. Looking at the rushing water besides her, Adira though about their time together; from the first day they met up to the present, and hopefully the many years to come ahead while enjoying that moment. "Can we stay here for a few more minutes?"

Kaz looked down at the Blaziken cuddling up to him and sighed. "I guess we can stay a little longer, but tomorrow we gotta catch a plane early in the morning."

"A little is all I need..." Adira sat down on the rocks as Kaz laid next to her, "I need to appreciate the little things more often before I can't anymore... I am only a flash in the pan for you, anyway." She stretched her body out and cuddled with the giant beast she'd come to like so much.


	5. Unhealed scars of the past

**I need to get off my ass and start doing work, both with writing and in real life…**

 **Side note: Anyone like pizza, I kinda want some pizza right now :/**

 **Also, Thanks to Wulfy for beta reading this :3**

Adira opened her eyes to the white ceiling of their room alongside the noise of silver ware and plates. Looking over to her left she found Kaz setting breakfast down on a foldable wooden table. "What... I'm back at the hotel?"

"Yeah, I carried you back once you fell asleep." Kaz pulled the soft cotton covers off Adira and unwrapped the silverware from its silk napkin. "Now, eat your breakfast, we'll be leaving in an hour or so." He pointed at the clock that said 7:32 am.

With a lackadaisical yawn, Adira sat up on the bed and slowly started eating her food. It was a simple, yet delicious breakfast; a cup of coffee, a strawberry crape, and a side of fresh fruits. As Kaz started walking away, Adira grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards her, making him take a seat next to her. With an expression of no shits given; mainly due to how tired she still felt, Adira asked, irritably: "Tell me who was this 'Merchant' we met yesterday."

"Ah, yes, his real name is Sir Conway Bismarck the Third. That man is over four-hundred years old." Kaz smirked as Adira chocked on her food and coughed out a grape. "He became obsessed with immortality and gaining knowledge. Naturally, he gained an interest in my kin. You could say we're good friends; I help prolong his life and he gets me rare items."

Adira cleared her throat and placed the grape aside, cleaning her beak with the napkin. "I wouldn't call that man a 'man' anymore, he might as well be a machine with a brain on life support." The thought of living forever had never been an enticing idea, remembering back to when her old partner used a book about a guy searching for a fountain of immortality to teach her English. Back then she found it pointless to live forever if it meant you'd one day do everything and see everyone die, even now she still thinks it's a flawed concept; kinda made her feel bad for Kaz.

Seeing the Blaziken starting at her food, Kaz poked her ribs, "come on, stop thinking and eat your food, we have to pack and go soon." He got up and started packing their bags, hiding anything illegal or important items inside himself. "Once you're finished, you can go and take a shower, we'll be leaving once you're done."

Adira shook her head and quickly finish her food. After a short, cold shower to wake herself up, they placed their bags onto a cart brought by a hotel assistant and rode the elevator down to the lobby. They checked out and had their bags carted out to an awaiting limousine. "So, we're going to get your friend, right?" She asked, placing the bags into the trunk.

"Yeah, she's living in Kalos right now, we'll be meeting in an abandoned house by the swamps. Once we're in the house just stay close to me... let's just say she made a friend..." He opened the car door for Adira and got in the back with her. "We're almost done, just two more stops."

"Yeah..." Adira didn't know how to feel about that, she liked an adventure- a change of scenery, but at the same time she felt a little homesick, tired of the uncertainty of exploring the world outside her bubble of existence.

"Hey, Adira... why aren't you being an asshole to me?" A moment of honesty, humility from Kaz. "You've been happy. I guess... I'm confused by how you've been acting."

Adria looked at the heartless monster she called her friend at a loss for words to a simple question. "I… I've been doing some self-reflection... been thinking." She never actually 'reflected', not in her entire life, she lived day-by-day while thinking little about the consequences of her actions, preferring to live in ignorance. That's until she realized Kaz could die just as easily as her old partner, this was her only chance to, in a way, make it up to him.

Moving in closer, Kaz tentatively looked at the Blaziken, "Please, explain. I've seen you slowly change this past year- especially this past week."

A heart to heart the sol asked for, a thing Adira thought had no genuine emotions wants her to be open about her inner thoughts. She took a deep breath, leaned against the car door and rested her head on the cool window, watching the buildings becomes gray blurs in the morning twilight, time itself feeling like a blur to her. Then told Kaz a story:

"The year I met you I lost someone very close to me. He was everything to me, my salvation, my teacher… my love." Adira clenched in anguish. "He took me from the streets, trained me, taught me to speak and read, gave me a home, a purpose, a life... In trade, I worked as his partner, gave him company, and... loved him."

Kaz's eyes widened as a single tear escape Adira's eyes before she quickly wiped it away. "We went out to get ice cream, then I heard gunshot... time stopped as I saw his body hit the ground. I held him in my arms and watched him bleed out," She punched the door, gaining a worried glance from the driver, but nothing more. "I was fucking helpless, powerless! I did NOTHING! I just watched him die!" Adira tensed up as her breaths became ragged, then, finally, started weeping; a sight more than haunting for Kaz. "I let the killer get away..."

The weakened Blaziken was pulled into a comforting hug between Kaz's arms, holding her close as he whispered nice words to her. Adira returned the hug, her face buried into Kaz's shirt. They stayed in each other's embrace for a few minutes before Adira calmed down, whipping the tears off her beak.

Backing away, she rested body on the door and let out a few shallow breathes, then continuing, "I work at Clearlan out of guilt more than anything else; they liked me and I earned their respect, so I couldn't just leave." She paused and nervously twiddled with the feathers on her leg. "When I confronted you I was mortified, but I was angry at the world- angry at myself, so I didn't care what you did to me, I knew I'd deserve it. But lately I've realized how short life is... I could die any day, even you can... like him." Adira blankly stared out the window as she lost her train of thought, then cleared her throat to get back on topic. "I guess… it took going on this adventure for me to realize I should be grateful having you in my life- I mean I'm nothing to you, yet you still care for me. Even if you try to hide it... I've always wondered why a monster like you would waste your time with me, what's so special about me..."

Kaz sat back in his seat and let out a hefty grunt of disapproval, making Adira look back at him. "I'm not a monster, just a sol..." Ending the conversation with that.

Soon enough, they arrived at the airport and went through the motions of airport security, Adira having to calm Kaz down after they patted him down, and getting ready for the long plane ride ahead. Kaz let out a groan of boredom as they embarked onto a 9-hour flight, but little did they know, this time the plane ride wouldn't be so dull.

Near the end of the flight night had fallen as the days were short in the northern Autumn. It was on that day Adira found out why flightless birds were afraid of heights. Kaz had been generous with his money and bought first class seats on a luxury airliner; mostly because of the horrible experience he had on the first flight, and naturally took advantage of all the delicious foods and drinks. He'd ordered one of their select wines to taste, and as the flight attendant handed Kaz his drink the plane violently shook, spilling wine all over Kaz. Adira leaned away and chuckled as the flight attendant begged for forgiveness while handing Kaz napkins to dry himself, "I'm so sorry, sir, I'll get you another glass after the turbulence settles down." She apologies once more and grabbed the empty glass cup off the floor, then rushed over to the plane kitchen, fastening herself to a retractable seat.

As the plane shook, Adira tried her best to play off her anxiety, taking deep breaths as the 'fasten seatbelt' light came on. She flinched as bright flash of lighting lit up the cabin, her claws digging into the leather of her seat's armrest, her body tensing up. Suddenly, the plane dropped a few dozen meters, making everyone feels weightless for a split second as their plane began its final decent into the region of Kalos. Looking over, Kaz couldn't help but to feel sorry for Adira; moments of weakness like these were far and few between for her, yet it helped remind him that everyone feared something. He placed his hand on Adira's leg and gave her a reassuring look, doing his best to calm her down. "Don't worry, I've saved people from higher places." Adira and Kaz traded a smirk as the intercom ringed throughout the plane.

Over the intercom the pilot spoke, casually: "Please stay seated, we are going through heavy turbulence."

"No shit" they said in unison, chuckling afterward.

For the next ten minutes, the flight felt like roller-coaster ride, one that seemingly would never end. Kaz could feel the wings bend as the plane sporadically dropped and gained altitude inside the storm. Once out of the storm, everyone let out a sigh of relief, approaching the Large city of Lumiose that slowly grew over the horizon. As the plane got closer and closer to the ground, Adira looked out her window to see the mesmerizing sky view of the city. The lights illuminated the city streets like glowing strands of a spider web, the cars being shining droplets of morning dew on the web. They both could see the international airport slowly appear into the view of their window, like a small-town glowing on the outskirts of Lumiose city. The plane approached the runway of the massive airport, an airport so big it might as well have its own zip code. Their flight came to an end with a hard Landing as the plane shook and wheels screeched, eventually moving into its disembarking gate. They soon moved through airport security, passport check, and bag check out. Luckily, everything went smooth, Kaz wasn't even patted down this time.

"Why so happy?" Adira lightly chuckled as Kaz swigged side to side while holding their carry-on bags. "You're making me look bad!"

Kaz stopped dancing and let out a light sigh of joyous anticipation, "it's been so long since I peacefully visited one of my other sol friends! I heard she got a new Pokémon companion, if I remember correctly."

"Peacefully?" Adira raised an eyebrow as she carried the actual travel bag on a cart down to the taxi pick up area.

"We have a lot of in-fighting and contempt towards each other... we all fear each other, and all of the surviving sols are quite strong." Kaz ran his fingers through his curly hair and scratched his head, then waved down a taxi. "I guess we're all trying to save what's left of 'us'."

"Sounds like a dysfunctional family if you ask me..." Adira joked with Kaz as they placed their bags in the trunk.

"We literally are..." Kaz let out one, sarcastic laugh and got into the car.

Both Kaz and Adira looked out onto the busy city streets, stores with bright neon signs lined the streets as the smell of bread and coffee filled the night breeze. Everyone was dressed for a night-out, Pokémon were decorated and dressed in nice clothes as they trailed their trainers down the streets. They drove right through the heart of the city, so bright that the sun would barely make a difference to the blinding glitter of the store windows, and, of course, the massive tower- the shining pride of the region that could be seen many miles away. Eventually, they took a side road heading towards route 16, the bright city lights fading into single street lamps illuminating the dark road, the central tower being the only remanence of Lumiose's brilliance.

Their taxi stopped in front of a traditional looking French hotel; a large house, border-line mansion, made from brick and wood located in the oldest part of Dendemille City. They walked out to grab their bags only to be met by the cool bite of the approaching winter. A Mienshao dressed in a French maid outfit walked out the iron front gates with a luggage cart. Kaz's eyes lit up as he had never seen such a cute Pokémon. He looked at Adira with a wide smile.

Adira narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "NO." Causing Kaz to shed a tear from how hard he was laughing.

The Mienshao giggled and placed the cart behind the taxi, ready to have the bags dropped onto it. "You can place your bags here, monsieur, I will bring them to your room." She had a meek, delicate, voice with the presence of a flower, yet she carried herself with pride as she carted off the bags.

"She's cute" Kaz nudged Adira with his elbow as he paid the taxi driver, giving a generous tip as always. "And she can speak French, too."

"Shut up..." With an angry scowl, Adira marched off to their room, following the Mienshao to the elevator.

Kaz stayed back, taking his time as he took in the sights and smells of the estate's lush garden. He sat down on a wooden bench overlooking a small pound with Seakings swimming around. A stupid thought was entertained in his mind. _She was jealous, wasn't she? Because I called someone 'cute'? No, that's dumb._ Shaking those outrageous thoughts out of his mind, Kaz got up and headed inside.

Walking into his room, he found an upset Blaziken sitting on the bed, staring him down. "We did not come all the way out here for you to hit on that slutty maid!" Adira started shouting at Kaz while the door was open, allowing everyone nearby to hear Adira's 'kind' words. "And what the fuck, why does it matter that she speaks French?!"

"Holy shit, Adira! People can hear you!" Kaz tried to shut the door and continue this conversation in private, but was met by the embarrassed and distraught eyes of the Mienshao.

"I... um, y-you dropped your wallet." The maid handed Kaz his wallet and briskly walked away.

Kaz slowly closed the door, "For your sake, don't blow our cover because 'they' are looking for us!" He turned to face Adira, took a deep breath, and let out a long, drawn out sigh of disappointment. "I will follow your every order; as is the nature of our contract, but only if I respect you- which you're making it hard right now… So, think carefully about your next words."

The angry expression Adira carried quickly turned to frustration, then to shame. "I'm sorry... I don't know what's wrong with me… I need some space." Without making eye contact, she walked out, her head hung low.

Kaz shook his head and began unpacking their bags, placing all the items they would need for their trek on the bed, when he heard a knock. "Come in," He turned around expecting Adira, but found the maid standing at his door way. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that... um, what's your name?"

"Mia" the Mienshao bowed down as she introduced herself.

"Well, Mia, I apologize for the way she's been acting; she hasn't been herself lately." Kaz slowly, and carefully pushed their 'materials' behind him before Mia could notice them. "Funny enough, she was the one who taught me manors."

Mia gave a courteous smile and slowly closed the door. "So, are you and that Blaziken _mates_? You two bicker like a couple..."

Kaz was caught off guard by that question. The idea of a romantic relationship with anyone was… foreign, yet she was right, they did argue and act like a couple. They lived in the same house, sometimes slept in the same bed, and they did argue like a couple, the only thing they didn't do was to be intimate. His logical mind was trying to divide by zero while denying something obvious, all his mind could muster up was: "No we're not."

The maid giggled again, moving closer to Kaz, "You know, you're a really bad liar, and even if are telling the truth you're still lying to yourself." Mia's innocent and shy demeanor became lustful and seductive as she pressed herself against Kaz. "You know, I'm a very suppressed girl… my master is very strict~" Kaz gasped as her hand slid to his crotch, "will you be kind to me, messeiur?"

Panic filled his mind, his body frozen in place as the Mienshao's small hands worked its way into his jeans. _What am I doing?! Why am I panicking, I never panic?!_ Thoughts of what Adira would do if she saw raced through his mind. He woke up from his panicked state and quickly pulled her paws out of his pants. "I'm not a kind person and you don't want to get involved with me!" Kaz frantically threw their items into a duffel bag and ran out the door, leaving the maid a little embraced and confused as she stood in the empty room.

...

The stressed out Blaziken strolled about in the hotel's lush garden, thinking to herself in quiet frustration. _Maybe I should apologize... but I never apologize, that's not something I would do... why can't I just do the right thing, why do I choose to be an asshole?_ Mid thought Kaz ran up to her from nowhere, panting while holding a duffle bag.

He quickly gained back his composure and took a deep breath, "Sorry for interrupting your midlife crisis, but we have to get going."

At first Adira was confused, but was thankful her mind had a distraction, plus it was a good night to take a walk. "So, are we gonna get a taxi?"

"Yeah, we'll get a ride up route 15 to Laverre City and then walk the rest of the way." Kaz looked at a taxi route map he'd searched up on his phone and looked across the street, through the metal gates, "Oh, would you look at that, there's a taxi stop right there."

After a thirty minute car ride and a quick late-night picnic with the taxi driver, they arrived at the city of Laverre. Quite a cozy city- more like a town, with streets of cobblestone and short street lamps illuminating small patches of the otherwise dark streets. Few people were walking about, most drinking in bars, and almost no cars. They stood outside the gym, a big house with an even bigger tree growing through the roof of the house. The humidity of the swamp could be felt, even smelled, from where they stood. Kaz saw Adira struggle with the smell brought by a cool breeze coming directly from the marshes and smirked. "Don't worry, everything smells stronger for me… Now, c'mon, we've got a long way to go. " Waving for Adira to follow, Kaz walked down the cobble streets while taking in the soothing sights of the quiet town.

Adira sighed and followed Kaz's lead, the duffle bag slung over her right shoulder. Jumping over a broken wooden fence, they reached a clearing of extremely tall grass far away from the Laverre, the ground becoming damp and saturated with water. Kaz stopped and held Adira back, keeping her from stepping in a puddle of mud and moss. "Why'd you stop?"

"Because you were about to step in mud," Kaz stretched his arms out and yawned, "also because I want to get into a more comfortable form."

Adira took a step back, knowing what that meant, and watched Kaz turned his body inside out as a creature she'd quickly grown accustomed to emerged from the black tar.

He cracked his neck, shook his fur loose, and in his deep, weathered grumble, spoke: "Get on, the night is young and the journey is long." He leaned down to let Adira climb on, knowing they would get nowhere on foot considering how deep they would journey into the swamp.

"Aren't you going to get wet and nasty with all that fur?" Adira sniffed the soft fur as she tightly held onto Kaz, the sweet cent of freshly pressed clothes being a pleasant surprise among the stench.

"I told you, I'm self-cleaning and my fur is water proof." All the muscles in his body coiled up, legs tense as he took a deep inhale, "Now, hold on."

Adira rolled her eyes and tightly gripped a handful of fur. Kaz made a mighty leap across the moss-covered pond into a thicket of Willow trees, leaving a crater in the mud from where they'd jumped. Going from tree to tree, he leaped though the tangle of hanging branches, leaving broken branches in his wake. Every jump would break the thick branch he landed on, causing him to slip down the trees and leave behind deep gashes in the bark. Eclipsing the moon, the creature of the night ungracefully glided through the moonlight, casting a shadow onto those bellow him. The other Pokémon watched in shock, terror, and amazement; a sight so rare that to them Kaz was a legendary beast of both power and size.

Adira held on tight, her head glued to his back as every jump and near fall jostled her around. "Can I ask you something... personal." She could hear Kaz's voice rumbled through his body and echo in his lungs like a subwoofer next to her head.

"Um... sure?" _A personal question from kaz? The world must be ending..._ Such a questing made Adira feel anxious and even uneasy, as if this short journey had changed them in an unexplainable way.

Kaz hesitated a bit, "Considering your past relationship, are you… well… still a virgin?"

"W-what?!" Adira felt her face become flush and body hot with embarrassment, all her feathers stood on-end as a chill ran down her back. She would've jumped off and beat the living shit out of Kaz, but the 30-foot fall into swamp water was enough of a deterrent. "Fine." She growled, knowing Kaz had her cornered in this situation; probably planned it. "No, I'm not a virgin. It happened on Christmas Eve... I was drinking eggnog with him and one thing led to another, next thing I knew I woke up next to him.

"C'mon, gimme some more details!" Kaz begged Adira to tell him more like a child would.

Adira buried her face into the fur out of sheer embarrassment. "I didn't know eggnog was alcoholic! Anyways... We knew what we did was illegal and if we got caught at best we'd get fired and split up, and at worst go to jail..." Adira reminisced on those days, how scary, yet exiting it was to passionately make love in the moonlight while keeping their relationship a secret.

"Did you guys keep doing it?"

Adira paused and thought about her next words, "Yes... Now stop asking questions!"

"You never had to answer, you know." Kaz let out a hefty chuckle, sensing Adira's burning hate towards him.

Absolutely infuriated, she screamed at the top of her lungs: "Asshole!" She punched Kaz's side and doused him in flames, turning them into a burning beacon bright enough to rival the moon, reflecting off the swamp water while gliding through the night. "You fucking played me, you conniving cunt-"

Adira's rant was cut short when Kaz slipped off a tree, marking the Willow tree with deep gashes while throwing Adira off his pack into a bush. "we've arrived." He said, casually getting up, then shook the fire off his fur coat.

"I swear to Arceus, if you were anyone else I would've killed you!" Adira turned the bush to cinder with the rage irradiating off her body, marching over to Kaz while burning everything in her path.

The beast that once was Kaz caved into itself to allow a more 'socially acceptable' Kaz to emerge. "Why would you hurt such an innocent face like mine?" he gave her a sarcastic puppy face and laughed. He promptly got knocked on his ass from a punch he received square to his jaw.

"there are many reasons- lots of them." She cleaned the ash off her feathers and looked around. "That's what we came for?" She pointed at an old, withered house at the edge of the swamp water, one window on the third-floor illuminates by a single candle.

 _I deserved that…_ Kaz stumbled back up, massaging his hurting jaws. "Yup! Now stay close." he took lead as Adira followed close besides him. They walked on a small walkway made of wooden planks, though they were rotten and molded, slowly becoming part of the ground again. The path seemed to be used often as the bushes and trees were trimmed, yet no maintenance of the actual walkway or house was present. Kaz approached the house and slowly opened the front door. The door itself seemed to crumble at the edges as the strong sent of rot and mold hit them both.

Adira gagged and stepped back, finding the smell of the swamps more attractive than of the house. "Ugh, that smells like rancid shit!" The repugnant smell forced Adira to cover her beak as she forced herself into the house. Looking around the house, black mold could be seen growing all throughout the house, melting vines weaving its way through the walls and floor. "what's up with the black stuff?"

"Oh, the rot? Yeah, just don't eat it and you should be fine." Kaz walked around a hole in the floor and proceeded into what seemed like a living room. He took a seat on a very moist, moldy couch that squished as he sat down.

 _Is that supposed to be comforting?!_ Adira thought, coughing from the heavy air that laced her lungs. She stood in front of Kaz, her arms crossed, too disgusted to touch anything as she waited for... someone.

"So, is anyone going to greet us?" Adira said, walking across the room to light an already half melted candle sitting on a dusty table. She recoiled when the soft glow of the candle exposed the horribly molded state of the walls and floor, the furniture fused to the ground by the invading mold.

"Right behind you..." Kaz made the Blaziken aware of the insidious figure quietly standing behind her, stalking her from a very close distance.

Adira turned around to find herself face to face with a glowing green and black wall; an ominous figure of legendary status, one that she's only heard of him in old fables and story books, yet there he stood in all his glory... Zygarde. The room was submerged into darkness as Adira stumbled backwards and crushed the weakened table along with the candle.

"You dare trespass!" His voice rattled the delicate house as he brought his face closer to Adira's. There was a tense second of silence as Adira sat in the rubble of the broken table, speechless, and Kaz patiently waited for tesa; Zygarde now only an inch from the trembling, stuttering Blaziken.

"HI, KAZ!" A small girl with long blonde hair, wearing a pink sweater and yellow rubber boots shouted at Kaz from the hall way, riding in on her less than exited mount, a midday Lycanroc that was wore a fall themed scarf. "It's been so long!" The excitement could be seen in the soft glow if her light blue eyes, a gentle light that cut through the weary darkness.

"Miss Tes, do you know these trespassers?" Zygarde asked, backing away from Adira.

Tesa hung from one of the Lycanroc's neck spikes, almost falling off, and playfully laughed. "Of course, I do, silly. Kaz trained me and that Blaziken is his best friend!" Pulling herself back up, she asked, "Anyways, how's the house, Zy?"

The mighty legendary stayed quiet, then softly spoke, looking away with hurt pride: "We might have to move... It's infecting the house too fast, I can't fight it fast enough. Forgive me... I have failed you."

Tesa waved off the worries of the legendary, "I'll take care of that later, you can go and rest up, you did your best." She dismissed her legendary house maid, letting him slither away into a hole in the ground; the one Adira and Kaz had to walk around.

The room suddenly became warm as Adira glowed with unspeakable rage boiling up inside, the mold and wood around her starting to slowly burn and smoke a nasty smell. She screamed and lunged at Kaz's neck, tackling him down to the ground while choking him. A heavy cloud of dust from the floor boards Kaz broke with his back filled the air and reflected the rays of moonlight coming from the stained window, Kaz helplessly laughing while choking on his tongue. In vain, Adira continued chocking and punching Kaz in the face for the next minute before the exhaustion of all their travels caught up to her, forcing the Blaziken to take a seat next to her chuckling partner.

While Adira bickered and fought with Kaz, shrieking about him not protecting her and how they weren't best friends, the Lycanroc timidly whispered to Tesa, "I'm don't like this place... it's dark and there's weird black stuff everywhere, a-and I hear weird noises above us... P-please, can we get out of h-here?"

Tesa hugged her fluffy companion and gave her an ear scratch. "I'm sorry, I know you don't like this house, but this is the only safe place we could meet up at." Tesa hopped off and caught the attention of everyone as the heavy thud and cracking of the floor resonated throughout the hollow walls of the house. "Hey, guys! Stop arguing and let's get a move on!" For such a small girl, she certainly can have an authoritarian voice when wanted to.

Adira looked down, feeling ashamed for making such a bad first impression, and Kaz quietly followed Tesa and her companion through the darkness of the house while holding Adira's hand. Once outside on the broken walkway, Kaz formally introduced Adira to Tesa and himself to the Lycanroc. "Forgive my rudeness, I'm sure you already know me and Adira." He politely presented himself to the Lycanroc. "And what's your name?"

The Lycanroc shook away the heavy dread that smothered her fur and the fear that laden her mind with a lighthearted, sweet smiled, "I'm Fenris, but call me Feni, just like Tesa calls herself Tes!" Feni went from shy to happy, appearing to be a somewhat easygoing personality; a perfect match for Tesa.

"So..." Tes kicked a small rock and rocked her body back and forth, "you told me you needed my help, heard something about you dying and wanting to save your sister. What could I possibly do that you can't?"

Kaz bit his lip and mumbled just loud enough for Tes to hear. "Fight Lewis..."

Tes stopped playing around and looked Kaz straight in the eyes to check the veracity of his request. "Oh." _He's serious..._

 **Big thanks to Wulfy for letting me use her character, Fenris, our fluffy Lycanroc doggo. Also, I got my pizza, hope you got pizza too; everyone deserves a slice of pizza.**


End file.
